Page 59 of Catching Dreams

“Her water broke?! That means it's time! Oh, honey, I’m so excited to be a Gigi!”

“I know, Mom! But first, can she take a bath?”

“Oh, yes! A bath or shower is totally fine. But just use plain water. No bubble baths or salts. Just NO sexual intercourse, Tyler! That could cause infection!”

“Ah! Sexual intercourse, really?!” I cried. “I wasn’t planning on that right now.”

“Good,” Mom said. “Now, if we start driving, we can be there in six hours.”

“Five hours if I drive!” I heard Dad say. “Our bags are in the car ready to go.”

“Sounds great! But drive carefully!” I said and hung up the phone. I was relieved they were on their way. “Mom says you can take a bath or shower,” I told Molly as I entered the motel bathroom.

“Ok. That’s good!” Molly said as she was undressing herself and looked down at the wet floor. “I’m so sorry about the mess.”

“It’s part of giving birth, so no need to be sorry,” I told her as I ran the bath water to the temperature I knew she liked. I then helped her climb in the tub and began washing her back.

“Will you promise me something?” Molly asked me. I realized that she had been very quiet since she woke up from her nap and discovered her water had broken.

“Anything,” I said with sincerity.

“Please, don’t eat pizza in front of me while I’m in labor.”

That was not what I was expecting at all. I moved myself over a little so I could look into her face. “Where did that come from?”

“I just had the best dream of my life, except for the fact that you were eating the best-looking pizza I have ever seen. And, of course, it was in front of me while I was pushing.”

I had to laugh and said, “I promise I will not eat any pizza while you are in labor! After you have our babies, I will take you out to your favorite pizza place in Springville, and you can have all the pizza you want.”

Molly sighed and told me thank you. She still had a far-off look in her eyes, so I asked her to tell me more about this dream. While I washed her, she told me all about how her parents and grandparents were there for the birth of our baby. She also said Dominic and my parents were there, too.

“Did you get to introduce Dom to his biological parents?” I asked.

Molly shook her head. “No. It was like they never gave him up for adoption. They already knew him. They told him how proud they were of him and how he was a wonderful big brother. They all told me how much they loved me, too. It was amazing. I was about to tell my Papaw and everyone else our son’s name when you woke me up.”

“So we had a boy, huh? What was the other baby?”

“I don’t know,” Molly said with a tilt of her head. “We only had one in my dream.”

“Not twins? That’s really weird, isn’t it?”

“Huh,” Molly said and shrugged as she looked at me. “I didn’t even think about that part of the dream. I wonder what that means?”

“Who knows?” I said as I dried off my hands. “Let’s look it up!” I got up, pulled out my phone, and typed it in the search box.

The dream of giving birth to one baby boy evokes feelings of joy, innocence, and new beginnings.

“Hmmmm. Well, the boy one does work with what is happening to us today. We will have joy when we see our babies. We are bringing innocent babies into the world, and it is definitely a new beginning.”

“I agree with all that totally,” I said and then noticed Molly tense in the water. She closed her eyes, put her hands on her stomach, and tried not to show she was in pain, but I could tell she was. “How far apart are the contractions, sweetheart?”

“I’m not exactly sure. Maybe every 6 or 7 minutes? Make a note of what time it is.”

“I already did,” I told her as I looked down at my phone. “Let me help you get up, and we’ll get you dressed and head to the hospital.”

“I know you called your mom, but do we need to call the others?” Molly asked as I helped her get out of the bathtub.

“Nope, Mom said she would start calling everyone.”

---